(Njabulo
Madlala. Pic: Timmy Henny)
The National Arts Festival has named an
unprecedented eight young South Africans winners of the prestigious Standard
Bank Young Artist Award, bringing to 125 the total number honoured since
Standard Bank began sponsoring the Awards three decades ago.
The Award is made annually to young South
African artists who are either on the threshold of national acclaim, or whose
artistic excellence has enabled them to make international breakthroughs.
“Celebrating excellence, innovation and a refined technical skill and artistry
rests at the heart of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards. Each of this
year’s winners represent the vibrancy and sophistication with which South
Africa’s artistic and cultural legacy continues to be enriched” said Festival
Artistic Director, Ismail Mahomed.
Durban-born
baritone Njabulo Madlala has been named by the National Arts Festival as the
2014 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for music.
Madlala
is the 2010 winner of the most prestigious prize for singers in Britain, the
Kathleen Ferrier Award. He is also the winner of the Singers Section at the
2012 Royal Overseas League Competition, of the 2012 Lorna Viol Memorial Prize
and the Royal Overseas League Trophy for the Most Outstanding Musician From
Overseas, the Sir John Manduell Award for an Outstanding South African
Musician, The Kenneth Loveland Gift Prize, and of the 2012 Worshipful Company
of Musicians Award. Madlala has been a Britten Pears Young Artist, a Samling Foundation
Course Young Artist led by Sir Thomas Allen, and a young artist at the Ravinia
International Festival in the USA.
The 31
year old Madlala explains his journey: “Right towards the end of high school
and when career decisions had to be made, a chance came for me to be part of
the chorus in a production of Carmen,
produced by the Spier Arts Festival. At the time I had very little option.
There was no money, so I wasn’t going to university; and it was a job, which
could now sustain my family! That production – uCarmen eKhayelitsha – went on to tour the world and, still singing
in the chorus, I set off for London.”
In 2002,
while in London, Madlala won an International scholarship to fund his studies,
graduating with a Masters Degree in Music from the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama; and completed a further year in the studio at the Cardiff
International Academy of Voice.
Since
graduating, his engagements have included title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Mid Wales Opera
touring England and Wales, Don Fernando in Beethoven's Fidelio, Bello in La
Fanciulla del West and Schaunard in La
Bohème (both Puccini) for Opera Holland Park, Moralès in Bizet's Carmen for Dorset Opera, Peachum in The Threepenny Opera at the Hawaii
Performing Arts Festival, Rangwan in Delius's Koanga at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Fisherman in Bird of Night for ROH2, Don Giulio in Rossini's L’ajo nell’imbarazzo at the Barga
International Festival in Italy, Porgy in Porgy
and Bess at the Cheltenham Festival and Mel in Tippet's The Knot Garden at the Montepulciano
Festival in Italy. Alongside opera, Madlala has made a special study of recital
repertoire and appears regularly on international concert and festival stages.
Born to
a single mother, Madlala credits her as his source of strength. However, he
says the love of music came from his Grandmother Phumzile (Eunice) Ngidi, who
passed away in 2009. “You could always hear her singing and humming folk songs
and lullabies across the house, while doing just about anything. Some were
songs she sang with other girls in her youth when they went to fetch water or
to get wood for the fire. I went to bed listening to her singing and there was
something truly special about her voice; I still get goose bumps to this day
when I think about that.
“I feel
incredibly lucky to be involved with music and for the gift of sharing its
beauty and messages with other people,” he adds. “Music brings us all under one
umbrella and gives us the opportunity for us to discover ourselves as human
beings. It fills a gap that nothing else can. I am really grateful for music
and how it has always shaped and saved my life. I want to use it to make this a
better world.”
He is
the founder of Amazwi Omzansi Africa (The Voices of South Africa) project,
which creates a platform for South African musicians to give back to their
communities. “We want to take part in educating and creating future audiences
for what is perceived as a European art form (Opera). We want our people to
know what we are doing and understand it, so that they will want to come to the
theatre without fear.” explains Madlala.
“The
Standard Bank Young Artist Award has an enviable reputation and rostrum of
colleagues who have been a great inspiration to me for so many years, and I am
therefore honoured and excited to be joining them. I have wanted this
opportunity since I can remember. I love London - I am really inspired in this
city as there is so much going on, but this award is something that comes from
home.”
For more
on his work visit www.amazwiomzansiafrica.com and www.njabulomadlala.com
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